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Author Jane Hamilton joins the first-ever Aspen Literary Festival, with her latest novel, “Phoebe Variations.”Leslie Brown\/Courtesy photo<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tAuthor Jane Hamilton joins the first-ever Aspen Literary Festival, with her latest novel, “Phoebe Variations.”
Leslie Brown\/Courtesy photo<\/p>\n
With fall in the air, curling up with an engrossing novel can be the perfect way to embrace the changing season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Acclaimed novelist Jane Hamilton is bringing her highly anticipated latest novel, \u201cThe Phoebe Variations,\u201d to the first-ever Aspen Words Literary Festival. Set for release on Sept. 23, the book is already generating buzz, with early reviews calling it \u201ca glorious novel\u201d and \u201ca winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton will be appearing on a panel titled \u201cAmbition, Scope, and the Modern Novel,\u201d alongside author Jess Walters. The panel will be moderated by creator of Tim Talks Books Tim Ehrenberg from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Aspen Community Church. The event is free with registration, and a book signing to follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The panel will be focused on authors who take on \u201cthe challenge of a \u2018big novel\u2019 in an era of distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ThePhoebeVariationsHiResCropped-1-680x1024.jpeg\" "\\"Courtesy")
The latest novel by Jane Hamilton, \u201cThe Phoebe Variations,\u201d September 2025.Courtesy photo<\/p>\n
Prior to the panel, Hamilton will sign books from 11:15 to 11:45 a.m. at the Aspen Literary Festival Headquarters Tent, located at the Red Brick Center for the Arts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The day concludes with her attending a cocktail party hosted by the Book of the Month Club from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Aspen Art Museum.<\/p>\n
She is known for her breakthrough novel, \u201cThe Book of Ruth,\u201d and international bestseller \u201cThe Map of the World\u201d \u2014 both were selected for the famed Oprah\u2019s Book Club. She also won the PEN\/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for Debut Novel.<\/p>\n
Her inspiration for \u201cThe Phoebe Variations\u201d came after watching the all-male performance of \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d starring Mark Rylance at the Globe Theatre in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came home, and I was so grief-stricken to have to leave that theater and that joyful space,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cI wanted to create something even half as joyful as being in that theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result is a novel exploring the intense friendship between two teenage girls \u2014 Phoebe and Luna \u2014 set against the backdrop of 1970s suburbia. Phoebe has a traumatic experience at the beginning of the book that causes her to run away, hiding in the basement of a family with 14 children, and she has a varied experience with three of the brothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was interested in exploring those intense friendships that teenage girls sometimes have, where you can be your best self and feel very pure at the time,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cThen maybe you look back later and wonder at the power dynamics and the decisions you made based on those dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n
The novel examines how that friendship continues to haunt Phoebe decades later. Luna becomes a famous influencer who keeps writing about Phoebe, even though they haven\u2019t communicated in years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hamilton, now 68, admits this book was particularly challenging. She worked on it on and off for nine years, writing multiple drafts and variations of Phoebe\u2019s story \u2014 at one point even having her character dress as a boy in a nod to \u201cTwelfth Night,\u201d though that version didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept working on it, and then I would give it to my agent and editor, and they would say, \u2018No, no, no,’\u201d she mused. \u201cBut I kept thinking, if I can\u2019t make this book work about a girl who runs away and hides out in the basement of a family with 14 children, then I need to get another profession because everything is here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The repeated rejections ultimately freed her creatively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat failure allowed me a certain freedom because sometimes people say, \u2018I wish it was more about this, or couldn\u2019t you make it more about that?\u2019 And it\u2019s like, well, no, not really. It\u2019s really about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton thought those families with many children, in a decade where there was a strong impetus for women to work, brought compelling material.<\/p>\n
The Wisconsin-based writer has noticed significant changes in the publishing landscape since her last book in 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest difference is podcasts \u2014 so many podcasts,\u201d she said, which she enjoys. She\u2019s not as comfortable with technical aspects of social media apps, but she\u2019s encouraged by what she sees as a renaissance in independent bookstores.<\/p>\n
For aspiring writers, her advice is simple: \u201cHave at least one reader that you really trust. Maybe two. But you don\u2019t need 10 people. And don\u2019t talk about your novel while you\u2019re writing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked what she hopes readers take from the book, Hamilton returns to her original inspiration:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would just hope that the reader, in whatever way, has a joyful experience. Even depressing books can be joyful if the characters have psychological depth and you feel a certain truth.\u201d<\/p>\n